Emerging from the bayou like an apparition, Donegal Plantation is known for its unsurpassed dining, captivating atmosphere, haunting legends and now a corpse swinging from the marble angel that marks its cemetery's most majestic vault. A corpse discovered in nearly the same situation as that of Marshall Donegal, the patriarch killed in a skirmish just before the Civil War.

Desperate for help traditional criminologists could never provide, plantation heiress Ashley Donegal turns to an elite team of paranormal investigators who blend hard forensics with rare & often inexplicable intuition. Among the Krewe of Hunters is an old flame, Jake Mallory, a gifted musician with talent stretching far beyond the realm of the physical, and a few dark ghosts of his own.

The evil the team unveils has the power to shake the plantation to its very core. Jake and Ashley are forced to risk everything to unravel secrets that will not stay buried even in death.

Review

A Civil War-era plantation, reenactors, ghosts, a killer and a second-chance love story — what’s not to like? Well, as it turns out, several things.

The romance takes a bit of a back seat to the mystery, but I’ve come to expect that in this series, and I’m fine with it. Unfortunately, several inconsistencies, assumptions, and leaps of logic threw me out of the flow of the story at various points in the book. And frankly, the killer’s logic seemed thin even if you factor in his obvious mental illness.

One huge issue that troubled me was the whole “oh, we’re totally over racism and slavery and the South’s defeat now” attitude of most of the characters in the book. That’s just bull. I don’t deny that there are some people, white and black, who have made a concerted effort to move past that legacy; I hope I’m one of them. But you have only to look at current events and the blatant racism visible on social media and even in some mainstream media to know that as a country, we are very far from being over it… especially in the South. Racism as it exists today needs to be addressed and acknowledged, not swept under the rug of “it’s all in the past and we all know better now.” Some of us do indeed know better now, but that doesn’t make it go away in the culture as a whole—or in the day-to-day experiences of African Americans. To be completely fair, a few of the characters do acknowledge and even encourage education about slavery and racism. But none of the African-American characters is subjected to racism—not by the reenactors, not by the police, and not by the B&B guests. And both the characters who actually live on Donegal plantation seem perfectly comfortable playing “slave” roles in the reenactment. Neither of those scenarios rang true for me. I ended up feeling that Graham had tried to dodge the deeper ugliness of racism in order to keep things light… but if you’re setting a book on a Louisiana plantation that does Civil War reenactments, you really have to take on those issues without the rose-colored glasses.

The last point that bothered me is that suddenly, in this book, it seems that everyone in the Krewe a) can see or sense or speak to ghosts — including Jake, although that wasn’t his talent in the last book (he was a finder) and b) is a full-fledged, fully-trained FBI agent already. It’s been barely any time since the end of their previous case, and only two of the Krewe — Angela and Jackson — had any law-enforcement background at that point. Jake certainly didn’t. Yet here he is, speaking and acting like with the authority, knowledge, and confidence of a trained agent. I’m sure they’re all getting training, but it takes a lot of time and a significant amount of training, both mental and physical, to become an FBI agent. At this point in the series chronology, most of the Krewe simply haven’t had that time. I realize that Adam’s unit is unusual, but I can’t imagine the FBI would waive its requirements more-or-less en masse.

So what did I like? The mystery and suspense kept me turning the pages — I read the book in a single sitting, and despite the significant reservations I mentioned above, there were parts of it I really enjoyed. (However, the alligator scene was a bit too gruesome for me.*) And I enjoyed Jake and Ashley’s second-chance romance as well, although I couldn’t quite buy the explanation of why she had pushed him away in the past. But their present was more satisfying and believable.

I still plan to read as many of the Krewe of Hunters series as I can get my hands on — they’re usually entertaining, and the others I’ve read have had fewer problems. But I don’t think this one is going in the re-read pile.

*That’s not a spoiler. This is the bayou, after all. Alligators come with the territory.

About Heather Graham

NY Times best-selling author Heather Graham majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write, working on short horror stories and romances. After some trial and error, she sold her first book, WHEN NEXT WE LOVE, in 1982 and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, romantic suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, and Christmas holiday fare. She wrote the launch books for the Dell’s Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette’s Shadows, and for Harlequin’s mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books.

Heather was a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA and, since 1999, has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Ball, with all revenues going directly to children’s charity. She has been published in approximately twenty languages, and her books have won awards from Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, and Romantic Times, as well as major bookstore chains.

Heather loves travel and anything have to do with the water, and is a certitified scuba diver. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Heather is also published as Heather Graham Pozzessere and Shannon Drake.

2 Responses to “Heart of Evil (Krewe of Hunters #2) by Heather Graham”

The racism is definitely an issue. While I would be surprised if there was blatant racism from a majority of the characters(manners before all else) it is hard to believe that there was none and even harder to believe that there was no issues for African Americans portraying slaves. This definitely doesn’t sound like the strongest book in the series. I’ll read it but it’s not high on my priority list. Great review!Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Clouds in My Coffee – Blog Tour Review + Giveaway

Yes, that’s exactly what I meant—I can believe that there would be some characters who aren’t racist, but not that there is no racism, and not that it’s not an issue for the African American characters. I still enjoy the series, but this one won’t be a re-read.